Obamarama - Yes He Can!

ok ok here it is.. the election post!

For 2 years America has been debating who should be there next president, and on Tuesday 4th of November, 2008 they spoke.. and made history! In their very passionate way, the streets of New York in the past couple of months have become flooded with pro Obama paraphenalia, from badges to mugs to hats and tshirts. There are posters of him all over the walls, unique grafitti in his honour, its almost like he is the messiah! Being such a democratic state where the majority are pro-Obama it is often difficult to get an equal understanding of what both sides are for... moreso on election day it is hard to fathom that there are people out there who aren't voting for Obama!

So election day started and the queues started forming down the streets... some people stood in lines for 2 hours before spending 30 seconds voting... thats one thing americans are good at.. standing in lines.. they love a good queue!

A few things confuse me about the american voting system.. first of all its not compulsory, so a lot of advertising and general chit chat is about whether you are voting or not, and not who you are voting for! I thought that was weird... then each state gets one vote for either candidate based on the majority of the votes from the people in that state. If the vote is only for president and not for seats in a senate then why isnt it 1 vote per person!? Thirdly, different voting places are open different hours, like some are opened more hours then others... im not sure what this impacts but it doesnt sound right... then they start counting and presenting votes on the tv before some polling booths have closed... another oddity... and finally... they predict who is going to win and announce it on TV before all the votes have been counted.. anyway its America, and thats just the way it is I guess!

So I spent the day at work, and spoke about the election which only 3 out of the 15 people in my office actually voted in! I find people who cant vote have a lot more opinions then those that can... Anyway after work I headed to an Election Party in a bar in Chelsea and watched anxiously at the big screen as the little states on the screen coloured in blue and red... it was a Jewish function and it was interesting to chat to people about there thoughts on the election.. suprisingly a lot of them voted McCain.. my superficial interpretation of this is because Obama wants to tax higher income earners more then they currently are being taxed and all the rich Jewish kids don't like that... again dont take my word for it just my analysis...
so as our eyes flicked from CNN to Fox News and back again, anxiousness growing at the discrepency of the numbers between each channel.. even though it was evident from early on Obama was winning in a landslide.. as he knocked over key republican states excitement grew, and all worries gone when McCain conceded in what I thought to be fairly early on in the race.. but he gave a good concession speech, probably the best speech his made all campaign... Then came Barack, the Might O... gave a wonderful speech everyone was cheering (except of course the McCain supporters...), and he has the cutest family, and he promised them a puppy in the whitehouse!!! how amazing for those kids.. the youngest so far to live in the whitehouse.. anyway we left the pub and headed home...

Jumping out of the taxi in my street i started seeing heaps of people gathering around and then all of the sudden the street at 1st Avenue and St Marks Place (my corner..) was packed full of people cheering and dancing, screaming out YES HE CAN... there goes the passionate americans again... it was crazy.. flags waving, bongos playing, heck (like my americanism) some guy was banging on his saucepan with a spoon!!! the entire intersection of quite a major road was full of people dancing.. cars couldnt get through, buses tried to inch their way without running anyone over...and then one guy jumped on the roof of the bus and starting running up and down it! ridiculous... at that point i headed up to my apartment and kept watching from my window.. it was so noisy and there was going to be no way i was going to get any sleep, so i went back down! made friends with people on the sidewalk and watched as throngs of police ran up and down the street trying to clear the road...eventually they succeeded and i went to bed..here are some pics.

The next day my friend had tickets to go and see The View. It is a panel of 5 famous women who chat for an hour about anything topical, have guests, give things away (unfortunately not cars...) and generally enertain the audience for 60 minutes... of course the hot topic was the election...the most poignant part of the whole show was when the black presenter (i think she is a famous comedian) broke down in tears as she told the story how she sat down next to her young son the night before and told him that the sky is the limit, he can now do whatever he wants with life... and this time she knew it was for real because tonight the USA had elected a black president...touching.

Since election day, the past week the country has been waking up and beginning to face reality and realise that they had actually elected a black president... and slowly slowly it began to sink in what that actually meant... the papaers wrote about martin luther king, the tv's blarred on about how today black and white are equal, and in schools black kids are running around now aspiring to be president of the USA... it is an exciting time for the country, one which noone knows what will happen, except the fact that they now have there first black president who won the election over a white man with overwhelming support, admiration and hope from his people.

lets see what he delivers.

A few interesting facts...Obama is not 100% black.. his mother was white... but the press kind of ignore that... and just on an ending note... America now has a Hawaiian President... bring on the luau...